How much is City Attorney spending to fight tunnel initiative? (Slog)

City lawyers and paralegals have spent 1,445 hours determining whether Referendum 1 and Initiative 101 were referable to the ballot and preparing lawsuits to prevent an August election. (Pete) Holmes filed the first of two lawsuits in March, and the first hearing will be held tomorrow morning.

Kimberly Mills, Holmes’ spokeswoman, said of the estimate that the”number quoted also covers office time spent on the viaduct issue outside of the referendum/initiative research. That would include working on the ordinance itself, with the 3 (Memorandum of Understandings) as well as other viaduct-related matters. Because our public records officer is gone for the day, I can’t verify an exact dollar figure.”

Holden said the public information officer he spoke to waws clear the numbers he referenced were about “research relating to the referability of the referendum and initiative and the lawsuits.”